A few changes have taken place since picking her up......painted the back first to see what my hand painting was like with propper brushes and decent paint - No more Hammerite for me !

The rear bumpers will eventually be replaced with Bummperette's, but I think they look ok for now....and not too many brush strokes

The rear lights look sort of military, so decided to see what painting them would look like....I'm quite pleased with the result and it will do until I get round to adding more authentic ones at some point in the future

Ieuan, Can't see too many brush marks there, but if you don't want any at all, use a roller, a gloss sponge roller is what I used and if you put next to no weight on it you get an excellent finnish, so much so that when I did my jeep originally people thought I'd sprayed it !See you next Friday !

It might just be the camera angle, but there doesnt seem to be much clearance for the left tail light when the tailgate is swung open

And with the weight of the spare tyre on the side furthest from the hinge, it might pay to sort out some type of support for the tailgate when it is shut to avoid stressing the hinge and lock assembly.
A decent nylon block bolted under the tailgate should do the trick.

I dont know how thick the steel is that your tyre bracket is bolted to- but it would pay to run a couple of strengthening square tubes to the otherside of the tailgate to spread the load.
heavy walled square tube running vertical and picking up the bolts for the tyre bracket should do the trick.

paint colour looks a good choice to me!

Last edited by stephen on Sun Jun 16, 2013 5:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

Stephen
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(I'm one of those damn colonials rattling his chains)

Stephen makes a few good points here,
Opening the tail gate will clash with the left hand lamp, even more so than on a standard set up as this could be and often was a problem, at full opening the spare wheel would hit the standard lamp lens, which were a lower profile than the truck type fitted now. but the truck ones do look much better in my opinion.

I notice the original steel and nylon support wedges that the tailgate pin rides in on the right hand lock side are missing, these did help support the weight of the closed gate, I'm not 100% sure but looks to me that the tailgate has been rebuilt at some time using square section tube, stronger than the old tubing and folded sheet.

the plate the spare mounts to is normaly around 4mm thick, welded to the thiner skin of the door, but it dosen't run the full width of the door so some attention will be needed to stop the spare pulling the bolts out of the thinner sheet where the mount is now.

The journey isn't about departing in a well preserved body - but rather to skid in sideways - totally worn out - shouting HOLY SHIT WHAT A RIDE!!!!

Be More like a Dog, If you can't, Eat it, Play with it, Chase it, or Bark at it, Just Piss on it and walk away.

M38A1 had small openings for the doors so did M38A2's,
But the M170 was a streched M38A2 made for use mainly as an Ambulance or Radio truck, the longer door on the passenger side made easier access to the rear when used by marines as a 6 man light transport vehicle. The longer wheelbase could carry strechers on the back. so the Spare Wheel was carried in a scoop beside the passenger seat and a jerry can often in front of this. Not that many were made as the M38A2 stayed in use for a very long time along side the newer Ford M151Mutt

The journey isn't about departing in a well preserved body - but rather to skid in sideways - totally worn out - shouting HOLY SHIT WHAT A RIDE!!!!

Be More like a Dog, If you can't, Eat it, Play with it, Chase it, or Bark at it, Just Piss on it and walk away.

stephen wrote: I dont know how thick the steel is that your tyre bracket is bolted to- but it would pay to run a couple of strengthening square tubes to the other side of the tailgate to spread the load. heavy walled square tube running vertical and picking up the bolts for the tyre bracket should do the trick.

In doing a way with my rotted out tailgate I was faced with that problem. Re-enforced as shown I made a mod that allowed the tyre bracket to hang on the top rail, then bolted thru' to secure. Time will tell, but so far seems to be OK.

Some more pics......I ended up painting the 'dash' did a small piece first and thought it looked ok, this will keep me going until I decide to replace the dash over winter – I think it’s turned out better than I thought! Painted the side lights as well, not had time to purchase replacements and need to move the horn and air filter intake (as well as cutting a new hole for it) positions so I can place the lights in there…Not sure if to put the side lights and indicators in the grill, need to think about that first.

Pics were taken before I put the plate on the rear wheel carrier

Jeep now needs a touch-up as it's hard to spot everyting in the garage (Aren't we supposed to have sunshine in June???). Hand painted most of it, did the bonet with a roller, sort of worked, but I touched it up with a brush....see what you think.

I'm hoping to get the old tyres off and painted this week, then hopefully picking up some tyres on Friday